ITC Judge Tosses 3,000 Pages from Apple Filing

Apple suffered a legal setback on Tuesday when an International Trade Commission Judge tossed out some 3,000 pages from a filing the company submitted as part of its patent infringement battle with Samsung.

Judge throws out 3,000 pages in Apple patent infringement filing

Apple’s legal team apparently tried to sidestep ITC page limit by including over 3,000 pages of attachments with a filing challenging the validity of Samsung’s patent. Now Apple has until the end of the day on Tuesday to file a sigle-page document with a table showing why the company thinks Samsung’s patents aren’t valid in compliance with ITC rules.

Judge E. James Gildea told Apple’s legal team the filing was unacceptable, and that the content belonged in a pre-hearing brief instead, according to Florian Mueller of Foss Patents.

Apple and Samsung have been involved in a months-long patent infringement battle in courts around the world over allegations that each side is using mobile patents without proper licensing. At one point Apple’s attorneys claimed in court that Samsung has been “slavishly” copying the iPhone and iPad designs.

Limiting what Apple can present now could hamper the company’s ability to effectively argue against the validity of Samsung’s patents — patents Samsung is using in hopes of blocking the import of Apple’s iPhone and iPad into the United States.

Throwing out Apple’s documents doesn’t, however, ensure a win for Samsung.

The two companies are also scheduled to meet for negotiations on May 21 in an effort to work out an out of court settlement in a Federal patent infringement lawsuit.